Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, has challenged Nigeria to stop treating artificial intelligence as technology to be imported and consumed, urging the country to develop AI systems capable of understanding its languages, cultures and educational realities.
Hamzat made the call on Thursday at the 13th Prof. Adetokunbo Babatunde Sofoluwe Memorial Anniversary Lecture at the University of Lagos, Akoka, where he also proposed compulsory AI literacy for every undergraduate in the country.
He said Nigeria’s growing interest in artificial intelligence would have limited impact if the technology remained largely designed around foreign contexts and English-language learning.
“Imagine an AI educational assistant that can explain mathematics in Yoruba, explain science in Hausa, support literacy in Igbo and help a child learn in Pidgin,” Hamzat said.
“We should not merely import artificial intelligence. We must build African intelligence into artificial intelligence.”
The deputy governor said such locally relevant systems could help address some of the structural problems confronting Nigeria’s education sector, including teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate learning resources and gaps in educational data.
Rather than replacing teachers, he said AI should be deployed to extend what teachers can do, including preparing lessons, generating exercises for different levels of learners, analysing assessments and identifying pupils who require additional support.
Hamzat argued that AI competence should also no longer be restricted to students studying computer science, engineering or other technology-related disciplines.
He called for AI literacy to become part of general undergraduate education, saying the ability to understand and work with the technology would increasingly determine how graduates participate in the future workforce.
He also urged Nigerian universities to change their role in the AI ecosystem, moving from teaching students to use existing tools to developing original solutions to Nigerian and African problems.
To achieve this, Hamzat outlined a seven-point agenda for AI in education covering teachers, students, curriculum, infrastructure, data, assessment and research.
He said teachers should have access to practical AI training, while students should acquire age-appropriate knowledge of the technology. Curricula, he added, should prepare learners for emerging occupations rather than focusing only on jobs that currently exist.
The deputy governor further called on telecommunications companies, banks and technology firms to make educational technology more affordable and contribute computing resources to universities.
He also urged private-sector organisations to expand their talent-development investments beyond Nigeria’s traditional leading universities so that students and researchers in other institutions could participate in the country’s emerging AI economy.
Representing the Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Management Services, Prof. Olumuyiwa Falaye, said Nigeria needed to develop people who could create and innovate with AI rather than remain dependent on imported tools.
Falaye said UNILAG had continued to expand its work in AI research and literacy through initiatives including the Edu-AI Hub, noting that its AI literacy programmes had reached more than 14,000 participants.
The Chairman of the lecture, Dr Sonny Folorunsho Kuku, said the choice of artificial intelligence as the theme was fitting because Sofoluwe had shown an early interest in computing at a time when the technology was still emerging.
Kuku described the late professor as a visionary academic whose contributions to mathematics, computer science and technology had left a lasting mark on the University of Lagos.
The Executive Chairman of Yaba Local Council Development Area, Dr Bayo Adefuye, also called for closer collaboration between government, schools, technology experts and the private sector to ensure that AI does not deepen Nigeria’s existing digital divide.
Adefuye said public-school students and teachers must be deliberately included in the country’s digital transformation, adding that access to emerging technologies should not be concentrated among students in better-resourced institutions.
The Chairman of the University of Lagos Alumni Association, Comr. Owoeye Adedeji, described Sofoluwe as a visionary and compassionate student advocate whose tenure contributed to the university’s infrastructural development.
He said the former vice-chancellor’s legacy continued to challenge the university community to improve on what it inherited and leave the institution stronger for future generations.
